Telecaster N3 Noiseless Bridge Height

Jonesy9

Morning all,
I have what is probably a really silly question, but i can't seem to find images specific to the N3 bridge pickup on a telecaster.
Last night i replaced the standard pickup on my Squier Tele to a Fender N3 Noiseless. All seems to be working fine, i've soldered the red cable to the point on the switch where the previous pickup was attached to. I've soldered the twisted green and black wires to the ground. All good.

However the height adjustment screws is where my question lies. The single adjuster screw on left side it not sitting flush to the bridge plate, resulting in me being able to push down on the screw, which moves the bridge back down a bit. When i let go, the screw raises up again.
It's as if it needs screwing in tighter, but the pickup already seems quite high, with quite a bright tone. Do i just need to screw it in tighter until there is no wiggle room?

The pickup i removed had springs on the adjustment screws, the N3 just seems to have red spacers.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

merciful-evans

cant you re-use the springs again?

Jonesy9

I could definitely try. Wasn't sure if i was suppose to due to the N3s having the red stand off thing. Not sure if the springs will fit on the N3.
It'd be interesting to see what other N3 users have done.
Thanks for the reply.

ICBM

The N3 is taller than a standard pickup and needs the red rubber tubing. It sounds like you may have got some of the wire trapped under the pickup so it’s pushing it up.

The bright tone is inherent to the pickup, not the distance from the strings.

Funkfingers

Jonesy9 said:
able to push down on the screw, which moves the bridge back down a bit. When i let go, the screw raises up again.

This degree of movement confirms that the pickup and screw are not bottoming out against the routed cavity floor. ICBM diagnosed your issue correctly.

Jonesy9 said:

the pickup already seems quite high, with quite a bright tone. 

There is no magic formula for polepiece to string distance that will yield an ideal sound (whatever that might be). A vintage-style Telecaster bridge pickup should have bold Treble and, arguably, be a bit Bass light. Overall, there should be a wiriness to the sound.

Jonesy9

Thanks guys, the wiring trapper under the pickup sounds very plausible to me. I've just restrung the guitar and so i will leave the dismantling and reseating of the wiring for now, until i source and install a new neck pickup and potentially a new set of tuners, and then i'll attempt to tidy up the wiring, as i don't want to have to cut the strings to lift the bridge.

I can live with how it is for now, as it's only slightly raised. Saves me writing off a new set of strings.
Good to know that the tone is as expected from the pickup. Definitely bold treble!

Thanks again all.